Happy Holidays!
by lucybubblychase
Summary: A series of snapshots following our favorite demigods during the holidays, in which Percy searches frantically for his missing candy and Annabeth tries to get him to study. Halloween & New Year's Eve so far.
1. Halloween

**Part I: Trick-no-treat**

Annabeth sat at the desk of Percy's dorm room, concentrating on the assigned reading for her Architecture class as she scribbled down notes. As Annabeth was no stranger to spending the afternoons studying with Percy in his dorm, an empty chair sat next to her, waiting for his arrival. The quiz wasn't for a couple of weeks, but she liked to get a head start on textbook work, seeing as her dyslexia and ADHD always made the arduous task of studying both tedious and taxing. Occasionally, she'd pluck a small piece of candy out of the plastic bag sitting on the desk and pop it in her mouth. She smiled, hearing the sound of Percy's pounding footsteps echoing in the hall outside. Percy burst through the door with Riptide drawn, threw his backpack down, and collapsed on his bed out of breath, sword in hand.

"Hey to you too," Annabeth said, glancing back at Percy before turning back to the textbook.

"Ran.. straight.. here…. Harpy… chased me… from… the classroom…" He capped the sword as he struggled to catch his breath.

"Why was a harpy taking Mythology?" Annabeth frowned, now doodling a miniature sketch of the Parthenon in the margins of her notebook.

Percy threw his arms up, letting them flop above his head. "Who knows?"

He sat up, shook off the monster dust, and strolled over to his desk drawer, expecting to find the stash of sweets he'd spent all of the previous night collecting. People had given him lots of weird looks, and he'd attracted lots of attention— a seventeen year old boy in a makeshift aquaman costume trick-or-treating amidst throngs of little children tended to do that— but they'd given him the candy anyway.

He mentally prepared himself for the gentle aroma of chocolate to hit him as soon as he opened the drawer, but instead, he found the drawer almost completely empty, with the exception of the two Kit-Kat wrappers sitting at the bottom.

"No. No no no no no." Percy started frantically rummaging through drawers and looking under pillows and mattresses. Annabeth watched Percy with a mischievous gleam in her eye.

Annabeth grabbed the bag from the desk and popped another piece of candy into her mouth as she swivelled around in her chair. Finally giving up on his search, Percy looked toward Annabeth, and seeing the bag, gradually assumed a look of hurt and betrayal.

"How could you?" Percy pouted, sulking as he mourned the loss of his beloved confections.

Annabeth sighed, turning back around in her chair. "I donated most of it to a candy drive, then burnt some of it for Athena."

Percy frowned. "Why'd you give your mom my candy?"

"Because, Seaweed Brain, your Marine Bio midterms are tomorrow. You're gonna need all the help you can get."

Percy sat down in the chair next to her with resignation, pulling out his textbooks with dread. Annabeth looked up, and felt a twinge of guilt upon seeing the kicked-puppy look on Percy's face. She pushed her small bag of candy towards him.

"I left you the blue ones."

He perked up instantly. "You're the best, Wise Girl."

Back when his mom still worked at the candy shop, every once in awhile, she'd bring him back a giant bag of blue assorted candies. He'd pick out the blue jellybeans, then the blue starbursts, but he'd always save the blue M&Ms for last. A Percy that had chocolate was a very happy Percy.

The childish light in Percy's eyes returned as he happily grabbed a handful of blue and tossed them in his mouth. However, his expression quickly turned to confusion, then slight irritation as he turned to face the person responsible for his deprivation of chocolate.

"Annabeth Chase." Percy said, his tone dead serious.

She looked up. "Mmh?"

"These. Are. SKITTLES."

Annabeth blank expression quickly broke as she burst into laughter. Percy looked mad for a few seconds before feeling sheepish and rubbing his neck, embarrassed by his outburst.

"Percy, I'll buy you all the blue M&Ms you want tomorrow, _after_ the test, but you promised you would study today."

"And Kit-Kats?"

"All the candy you can eat."

Percy weighed the decision for about five seconds before he scrambled back to his textbook to find the right chapter, but not before giving her a quick peck on the cheek, just because.

Annabeth rolled her eyes with a smile before taking the textbook, plopping it in her lap, and flipping through a few pages. "Okay, what is a symbiotic relationship?"

Percy stuttered, trying to remember the answer… "It's a… relationship that's symbolic? Of..."

Annabeth laughed. "Symbiotic, Seaweed Brain, not symbolic." She shook her head in disapproval, but her endearing smile gave her away.

By the end of the study session, all the skittles were mysteriously gone, and Percy's tongue had somehow turned a bright shade of blue. Of course, he didn't say anything about it to Annabeth, because he still wanted his chocolate, and Annabeth, although ever observant, didn't say anything about it to Percy, because a happy Percy always meant a happy Annabeth.

* * *

 _Hi peeps! Thanks for taking the time to read my little ficlet, even though it's way past Halloween…_

 _Anyway, please review if you liked it and if you'd like me to write more! I'm hoping to write a couple more shorts for other upcoming holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.) so PLEASE feel free to leave any ideas you have! They can be of the characters at any age and time, and I'm open to non-canon ideas. Other ships are great too :D_

 _OH ALSO! When I was trying to think of a cute clever title for this chapter, I came up with a list of about four kinda punny names. Most of them were pretty cringey… but this chapter is alternatively titled:_

 _-Study-or-No-Treat (so bad…)_

 _-Study-for-Treat (even worse… these aren't even catchy)_

 _-Hallo-Wee Need to Study (get it? 'cuz it's Halloween… which I thought was kinda clever but still very cringe)_

 _-Trick-no-Treat (which I went with in the end, because it was the simplest, even though it doesn't really make sense… YEAH!)_

 _If you guys have any other suggestions for punny chapter titles, feel free to leave them in your reviews, and I might change it!_

 _Bye!_

 _~Lucy_


	2. New Year's Eve

**Part II: A New Kind of New Year's Resolution**

Percy knew something was on Annabeth's mind the second he walked through the door. The carpet of her dorm room was covered in piles of half-finished sketches of buildings, all varying in style. She scratched away at the sketch pad with her dulling pencil, eventually ripping the page out and letting it float to the ground behind her.

Percy silently closed the door and walked to stand behind her. She acknowledge his presence with a faint smile.

More and more papers fluttered to the ground, all depicting variations of a house, through no two sketches looked the same. Some were tall and grand, while some were small and simple, white picket fence and all.

The strokes of her pencil became more and more frantic, until finally, the lead snapped. Annabeth dropped the pencil and searched frantically in the drawer for another.

"Annabeth." Percy tried to get her attention, but she only scrunched her eyebrows continued to search.

"Annabeth.." He tried again, but Annabeth only murmured a short reply- "Can't.. find it…"

"Wise Girl." Percy grabbed her wrists to stop her from continuing to look aimlessly for the pencil that seemed to refuse to be found. She looked up at him with an anxious expression. "You can breathe."

She nodded and took several deep breaths before turning away from her desk and toward Percy, who sat down in a chair next to her.

"Wanna talk about what's bothering you?" Percy held her hands in his.

She nodded again. "It's New Year's Eve… and I've made a resolution every year since I was four."

Percy smiled, because it was such an Annabeth thing to do. "I remember making one in daycare… before I killed a snake and got expelled."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. Only Percy could get expelled as a toddler, for accidentally killing a snake of all things. "What resolution could baby Percy possibly have made?"

Percy grinned. "I told the teacher my resolution was to eat 30 chocolate chip cookies in one sitting."

Annabeth laughed, because it was such a Percy thing to do.

"The teacher frowned and told me it wasn't a real resolution, and that a toddler couldn't possibly do it, so at snack time the next day, I convinced all the other kids to let me eat their cookies so I could prove her wrong."

"What did the teacher do then?" Annabeth asked.

"She gave me a timeout for eating everyone's cookies and told me to have a new resolution when the timeout was over."

Annabeth assumed a look of pity and sympathy. "Poor little Percy, having his dreams crushed at the wee age of three."

"Joke's on her," Percy said triumphantly. "My new resolution was to eat 40 cookies in one sitting."

Annabeth giggled uncontrollably, her worries temporarily forgotten. "Percy Jackson, slayer of the Minotaur at 12, savior of Olympus at 16, and champion cookie eater at 3."

Percy pouted. "I was three, okay. My only priorities were food and sleep. And Mom."

"Oh Seaweed Brain, you haven't changed a bit." Annabeth commented, teasing him lightly.

"Not true." Percy retorted with a gleam in his eye. "Now I have you."

She rolled her eyes again. Percy was always making cheesy comments, and she always rolled her eyes, but Percy always knew that she secretly loved them.

"So," Percy said. "What's your New Year's resolution this year?"

Annabeth bit her lip nervously. "I.. I can't think of one. A good one, at least. And I've always been able to think of one. And I've always completed them, but I can't complete the resolution if I haven't made one. It's- it's like I've hit a dead end. Which probably means I'm not ambitious enough, or that I'm plateauing, or-"

Percy leaned over and kissed her lightly, cutting her off. "Wise Girl, you are one of the most ambitious, smart, creative beings who's ever existed on this planet, savior of Olympus, architect of the gods, survivor of Tartarus… Just because you've accomplished all these amazing things in the past, doesn't mean you won't accomplish amazing things in the future. In fact, all those impossible things you've done only show that you're capable of so much more." He looked at her with more sincerity than even Alethia, the goddess of truth, could ever have. "You don't always have to put so much pressure on yourself. Maybe, right now, letting yourself be peaceful and happy is enough."

Seeing the tears leaking from the corners of her her eyes, Percy pulled Annabeth into a tight hug. She sniffed quietly as he stroked her hair.

After a minute or two, the sniffling stopped, and Annabeth pulled back, wiping away the remaining tears. "When did you get to be so smart, Seaweed Brain?"

Percy shrugged. "I guess you've rubbed off on me."

Annabeth broke into a smile and laughed, a genuine one this time, not a half-hearted one, blocked by self-doubt and worry.

"So, about that peace and happiness thing," Percy started. "Want to go out for some ice cream? My treat."

"Sure, just give me a second," Annabeth said, turning back her table and finding a pencil in the back of the drawer with ease. Flipping to a new page in her notebook, she began the new sketch with newfound determination and confidence. After several moments of nothing but the sound of pencil on paper, she set down the pencil and looked at the sketch with a faint smile of satisfaction. She had drawn a modest house, two floors, but nothing fancy. There was a small porch with a swing out front and little flowers lining the steps leading to the door. It seemed like the kind of house a newlywed couple would move into; where they'd make coffee and rush out the door on weekdays, but sit together on the swing and enjoy the sounds of the birds chirping on lazy Sunday afternoons. Percy tried to look over her shoulder, but Annabeth tore the page out of the sketchbook, folded it into fourths, and slipped it under a textbook.

Percy pouted. "Why can't I see it?"

Annabeth turned towards him with a smirk. "Someday, I promise."

"Why not today?"

"Some-day," Annabeth repeated, emphasizing each syllable.

"Finee," Percy sulked. Annabeth rolled her eyes with a smile as the two got up to head out to their favorite ice cream place, only a few minutes away. Annabeth's hand slid into Percy's as they walked through the hallway.

"Chocolate chip cookie dough, two scoops, with sprinkles." Annabeth recited.

Percy grinned. "And one scoop of vanilla for you." Annabeth nodded with a smile. "I don't know why you always get vanilla; it's so plain." Percy whined.

"Vanilla's a classic!" She retorted. They paused for a moment as they waited for someone to exit the elevator before they stepped in. Some awfully upbeat easy-listening elevator music played as they waited, probably courtesy of Apollo. They stepped out onto the sidewalk, their hands still swinging between them.

Percy's eyes lit up childishly as the ice cream shop came into view.

"Welcome to Khione's Icy Ice Cream. What can I get for you two today?" The college student behind the counter asked. Annabeth shuddered at the shop's name. Encounters with the goddess of snow were never pleasant.

"Two scoops of chocolate chip cookie dough in a waffle cone with sprinkles, and one scoop of vanilla in a cup." Percy ordered.

The guy punched their orders into the computer, and grabbed a cup and a scooper. "That'll be five forty-nine."

Percy nodded, grabbing his wallet from his back pocket, but hesitating as he brought it out. "Could you, by any chance, make the cookie dough blue?"

The employee seemed very, very confused with the request as he shook his head and continued scooping the vanilla into the cup. "Don't think so."

Annabeth laughed at the disappointed look on Percy's face before going on her tiptoes to place a sloppy kiss on his cheek. "Better?" She asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Percy smirked, leaned down to place a soft kiss on her lips. "Always."

* * *

 _I hope this fluffy little one-shot made you smile! Please leave a review if you liked it, and tell me what other one shots you want me to write! Or you can tell me what you you did over the holdiday, what presents you got... I just want to hear from you! ^_^ Happy New Year everyone!_

 _P.S. I know I skipped over Thanksgiving and Christmas to New Year's of all holidays, but I was kinda drawing a blank on ideas… might post them later on in the year… even if they're both long over. It's never too late for some holiday spirit!_

 _~Lucy_


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